Double Standards
by solice-in-silence
Summary: I never felt my mage Warden could be angry enough at Isolde for what she put Connor and Redcliffe through, so I gave her a voice for her rage.


"Please - Connor's not responsible for this! There must be some way we can save him" Isolde pleaded. "He's not always the demon - you saw this - sometimes he breaks through".

Tired, physically exhausted and drained, the blood of those who are been employed at this castle staining her robes, Sosia closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm herself.

"Let me think" she murmured, wrinkling her forehead as she tried to think of everything she had ever been taught in the Circle about demons and possession.

"I wouldn't normally advocate killing a child - but Connor's an abomination" Jowan ventured nervously.

"You! You did this to him! Isolde spat.

"I didn't summon any demon!" Jowan responded, the tentativeness in his earlier comment now replaced by indignant anger.

"You **betrayed** me! I brought you here to help my son and in return you poisoned my husband!" Turning to Sosia, Isolde continued "He should be executed! Without him, **none** of this would have happened!"

Sosia had no liking for this woman, but she had tried to be polite despite Isolde's dismissive attitude toward her and rudeness to Alistair. She had tried to have appreciation for the stress and strain Isolde would be feeling, but that accusation was a step too far and her response snapped out of her.

"Jowan is no more to blame than you are" she told Isolde, meeting the noble's eyes steadily, her own blazing.

"I - " Isolde said, clearly ready to continue, but Sosia prevented her, her own broad Fereldan tone crashing over Isolde's Orlesian accent.

"You brought a mage into your home, a mage exiled from the Circle - I can't imagine you didn't have any idea of what that meant Jowan is!" Sosia said, Isolde falling quiet, struck dumb by the sudden onslaught. "Had you not, Jowan would not have poisoned the Arl and he would be well, and Connor would never have made a pact with a demon". In her mind it was clear that while Jowan and Loghain had played their parts, the whole mess started with Isolde.

"I just wanted to protect him! If they found out he had magic they'd take him away - I thought if he learned a little, enough to hide it-"

"You saw your son had magic, and instead of sending him to the Circle, where he would be safe and trained, you kept him here. Had you sent Connor to the Circle none of this would have happened! He would have been with people who could keep him safe from himself and ensure he hurt nobody else. You took that risk, and not just because you love your son, but because you were ashamed of what it said about you for having produced a mage child"

"How dare you!" Isolde spat but Sosia was in no mood to listen.

"I left my family when I was seven. I have not seen them since. I spent more than a decade locked in that tower, and were it not for the Blight, would have spent the rest of my life there! Do you think my mother did not want to keep me with her? Do you think other families do not love their children? Had it not been your child, had it been somebody in the village had kept their son and he in turn called forth a demon that resulted in corpses rising and killing the living - how much sympathy would you have had? You're more than happy to follow the Chantry teachings when they do not hurt you, only other people, but you think you are above the rules - because of your blood? Your standing? You think you can blame it all on Jowan and absolve yourself when this began because you felt that locking others way in the Circle is acceptable, but Maker forbid your own son join them? And then you have the nerve to blame others? You disgust me!"

It was a raw dark anger inside her directed at so much more than Isolde, but it was at this woman that it poured out, with others in the room silent and stunned, unsure what to say as Sosia's balled fists glowed like hot coals. Something in that anger finally seemed to reach Isolde though, who slumped under it finally, her head bowed.

"Because of your pride, dozens of lives have been lost. And now...now your son's will be too"

"No - please, not my son, please" Isolde begged. Sosia supposed, in a far off recess of her mind, that part of her ought to be pleased to have finally broken this woman and made her see some of her crimes, but all she felt was sick instead of triumphant. It was not Connor's fault, that he should die for this felt so unfair she could taste it in her mouth, like bile and bitterness.

"There...may be another way" Jowan began, speaking slowly as though struggling to find his voice again, quiet in the huge room after Sosia's voice. "Killing Connor would be most straightforward but...if a mage were to confront the demon in the Fade..."

"The demon is not in Connor?" Bann Teagan questioned, confused, the strange logically conversation cutting across the two emotionally charged women who faced one another.

"Not physically. He approached the demon in his sleep, in the Fade and it controls him from there..."

Sosia could see where this was going, and her own face began to relax, the fury fading as the cogs in her mind began to turn.

"So - you could kill the demon there?" Isolde asked, her expression lightening with hope.

"No, it would have to be another mage. I can't enter because I would be doing the ritual. But also..."

"This is blood magic" Sosia pointed out, her voice dull.

"And powerful blood magic. It would require a lot of blood...as in all of it. From another person". That silenced everyone for a moment and Jowan shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other. "It's not much of an option. Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned it".

For a moment there was a quiet, each struggling with their own thoughts.

"I will do it" Isolde said, her voice resolved already despite the short moment she had to compose herself. "I will be the sacrifice".

"Eamon would never allow-"

"Either someone kills my son to destroy that thing inside him, or I give my life so he might live. The answer is clear to me".

Sosia nodded. To her it made sense to. Not because of her anger to Isolde, but because this righted the balance in her mind.

"I will enter the Fade" she said. "I will save your son".

"But - blood magic?! Are we seriously condoning this?!" Alistair burst in.

"You have a better option?"

"How can more evil be the answer though? What if - the Circle? With enough mages and templars and lyrium?" Alistair offered, and Bann Teagan looked hopefully but before he could speak Sosia cut him off.

"No. The Circle is a day's journey away. There and back, and the time between to gather all we need? How many more people might the demon kill in the time we are gone? I will not leave this place with the demon in control of Connor". Her voice brokered no argument. "The people of Redcliffe Village have been the true victims here, and they have suffered enough. I'll not leave them another two nights at its mercy. We make a choice now".

"Connor is blameless here. He should not have to pay the price. Please". Her voice was soft now, and Sosia felt some of the rage within her soften. In this, she could respect Isolde. Had she not volunteered to right this wrong, Sosia could never have forgiven her, but this option...this she could accept.

"I know what I must do" she said, looking to Jowan. "I will enter the Fade. I will destroy the demon". Turning back to Isolde she added "I will save your son. Because I agree, he should not pay the price. He is a child who knew no better. But once the demon is gone - he will enter the Circle. For his safety, and the safety of those around him. Whatever your motivations, I know from my own life that a mage child needs guidance. The Circle is not a prison, but a school and place of safety. He must go there".

"I agree".


End file.
